(Lot of 4) Native American (Poverty Point) Cooking Balls for Sale

(Lot of 4) Native American (Poverty Point) Cooking Balls For Sale

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(Lot of 4) Native American (Poverty Point) Cooking Balls :
$25.00

PPO’s (Poverty Point Objects), usually called cooking balls, from the Poverty Point culture in the southeastern United States.

This culture was a widespread pattern of life by certain Indian peoples in the Lower Mississippi Valley between 2000 and 700 B.C. But within this large area the people had differing customs and traditions.

What they did have in common was participation, in varying degrees, in a far-reaching system of trade and manufacture/use of certain artifacts.

One of these unique artifacts are these clay cooking balls.

Cooking was done over hearths and in earthen ovens. The earth oven was an ingenious Poverty Point invention. Nothing more than a hole in the ground, these hot-baked clay objects were added to the holes to reflect heat.

These cooking balls were hand molded. Fingers, palms and sometimes tools were used to fashion different styles, perhaps each with a specific purpose. Archaeological experiments have shown that the various shapes helped determine the intensity and duration of heat inside the earthen ovens.

Exactly what happened to the Poverty Point culture remains a mystery. Perhaps with continued study this riddle will be solved.